FORESTRY IN FRANCE. 251 
tends to disappear ; and this is notably the case where, for the time 
being, local circumstances, such as the absence of export roads, 
render wood a less profitable crop than grass. Here the forests 
gradually become almost unproductive, and finally succumb from 
excessive grazing. 
About four-fifths of the total area of the communal forests are 
still used as grazing grounds, nearly one-half of the latter being 
open each year; and the average area provided for each class of 
animals is about 3 acres per head of large cattle, 2 acres per pig, 
and 2 of an acre per sheep. Separate grazing grounds are allotted 
for each class, and these figures represent the average of all 
qualities of pasture land; they could not therefore, even supposing 
that the grazing were not excessive, be taken as a guide to the area 
which should be provided per head in any particular locality, even 
in France, and still less so in other countries. 
OFFENCES. 
Until the year 1859, persons who were charged with offences 
against the Forest Law had always to be tried by the Courts ; but in 
that year a law was passed which enabled the Forest Department to 
take compensation from offenders instead of bringing them before 
the tribunals, and this method of dealing with them is now largely 
practised. The department has always the power to charge the 
delinquents before the Courts ; while they, on the other hand, 
have always the right to refuse payment of the compensation 
demanded, and thus to bring about their formal trial. Officers of 
lower rank than that of conservator are not, howeyer, authorised to 
deal with cases in this manner, and the power of the conservator is 
limited to the acceptance by way of compensation of sums not 
exceeding £40 ; if it is desired to exact a larger amount, the sanc- 
tion of Government must be obtained. 
This system has many advantages. For while it is necessary in 
the public interest that infractions of the forest rules should be 
checked, a large proportion of them are usually of a petty nature, 
and in many cases the persons who commit them hardly deserve the 
severer penalties that must be inflicted on their being found guilty by 
the Courts. The system of taking compensation, on the other hand, 
permits the adoption of a scale of punishment more suited to this 
class of offenders, while it at the same time enables the means of 
the delinquents, and the attendant circumstances of each case, to be 
VOL, XI., PART IL. 8 
